Atlantic weather pattern shaped southern Greenland's rain and snow for millennia, sediments reveal
Researchers have used sediment cores from Narsaq Sound in Greenland to reconstruct precipitation patterns over the last 12,000 years. The study links these historical climate shifts to the North Atlantic Oscillation.
Why it matters
Reconstructing past climate data helps scientists better predict how current Arctic amplification and changing weather patterns will affect the Greenland Ice Sheet.
by MARUM - Center for Marine Environmental Sciences
edited by Swati Mestri , reviewed by Robert Egan
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Add to Preferred Sources The Northern lights (aurora borealis) shine down of the deck of the research vessel MARIA S. MERIAN during expedition MSM111 as it sails towards Greenland, where the sediment core from Narsaq Sound was recovered. Credit: MARUM, University of Bremen; J. Faust In high-latitude coastal areas, Arctic amplification means that temperatures are rising faster than the global average. This combination of rising temperatures and changing precipitation patterns driven by the North Atlantic Oscillation has major impacts on regions with a "cryosphere"—areas that host ice sheets and glaciers, such as southern Greenland.
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